From the acclaimed historian of global empire, the dramatic story of how steam power reshaped our cities and our seas, and forged a new world order Steam power transformed our world, initiating the complex, resource-devouring industrial system the consequences of which we live with today. It revolutionized work and production, but also the ease and cost of movement over land and water. The result was to throw open vast areas of the world to the rampaging expansion of Europeans and Americans on a scale previously unimaginable. Unlocking the World is the captivating history of the great port cities which emerged as the bridgeheads of this new steam-driven economy, reshaping not just the trade and industry of the regions around them but their culture and politics as well. They were the agents of what we now call 'globalization', but their impact and influence, and the reactions they provoked, were far from predictable. Nor were they immune to the great upheavals in world politics across the 'steam century'. This book is global history at its very best. Packed with fascinating case histories (from New Orleans to Montreal, Bombay to Singapore, Calcutta to Shanghai), individual stories and original ideas, Darwin's book allows us, for better or worse, to see the modern age taking shape. 'A fine, important and original book ... wonderful' Paul Kennedy, Literary Review
John Darwin Book order
This historian's scholarship delves into the history of European imperialisms, with a particular focus on the British Empire between 1880 and 1970. Their research critically examines the complex history and politics of decolonisation. Through rigorous academic inquiry, they illuminate the forces that shaped the modern world. Their position at Oxford University provides a distinguished vantage point for this significant historical exploration.






- 2022
- 2022
From the provincial peccadilloes of Prestwich in Manchester to coffee houses and bars by the Bosporus in Istanbul, John Darwin explores life's three stages of arriving, staying for a bit, and then leaving. A poetic reflection on the ennui of the everyday, intermittent pleasures, and the quest to understand love and belonging.
- 2020
The dramatic story of how steam power reshaped our cities and our seas, and forged a new world order Steam power transformed our world, initiating the complex, resource-devouring industrial system the consequences of which we live with today. It revolutionized work and production, but also the ease and cost of movement over land and water. The result was to throw open vast areas of the world to the rampaging expansion of Europeans and Americans on a scale previously unimaginable. Unlocking the World is the captivating history of the great port cities which emerged as the bridgeheads of this new steam-driven economy, reshaping not just the trade and industry of the regions around them but their culture and politics as well. They were the agents of what we now call 'globalization', but their impact and influence, and the reactions they provoked, were far from predictable. Nor were they immune to the great upheavals in world politics across the 'steam century'. This book is global history at its very best. Packed with fascinating case histories (from New Orleans to Montreal, Bombay to Singapore, Calcutta to Shanghai), individual stories and original ideas, Darwin's book allows us, for better or worse, to see the modern age taking shape.
- 2019
A poetic journey from the mills and moors of the industrial north to the meals and mosques of the Byzantine middle-east and back again. I Meet Myself Returning is about finding your feet in our convoluted world and letting them take you to a place to call your own. And occasionally stopping off for a pint.
- 2013
A both controversial and comprehensive historical analysis of how the British Empire worked, from Wolfson Prize-winning author and historian John Darwin The British Empire shaped the world in countless ways: repopulating continents, carving out nations, imposing its own language, technology and values. For perhaps two centuries its expansion and final collapse were the single largest determinant of historical events, and it remains surrounded by myth, misconception and controversy today. John Darwin's provocative and richly enjoyable book shows how diverse, contradictory and in many ways chaotic the British Empire really was, controlled by interests that were often at loggerheads, and as much driven on by others' weaknesses as by its own strength.
- 2011
A magisterial global history of the rise and fall of the British Empire by an award-winning author.
- 2009
After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400-2000
- 592 pages
- 21 hours of reading
"First published in the United Kindom by Penguin Books Ltd. in 2007"--T.p. verso.
- 2008
After Tamerlane
- 592 pages
- 21 hours of reading
Tamerlane, the Ottomans, the Mughals, the Manchus, the British, the Soviets, the Japanese and the Nazis. All built empires they hoped would last forever: all were destined to fail. But, as John Darwin shows in his magnificent book, their empire building created the world we know today. From the... číst celé
- 1988
Presented chronologically, this study focuses on the post war break-up of the British Empire which began with the abandonment of the Raj in India and the eventual entry into the European Community. The author examines the significance and the reasons behind this imperial retreat.